Contemplation
by Deandra
Summary: Eomer ponders an alternative possibility. Fluffy little ONESHOT. Part 144 of the Elfwine Chronicles.


_**Part 144 of the Elfwine Chronicles. The Elfwine Chronicles are a series of one-shots built around the family group of Eomer, Lothiriel and Elfwine. The total number will depend on how many ideas I get for new vignettes.**_

_**A/N: Another late night sleep interrupter. My earthlink webmail is being cranky, so I've temporarily switched back to my yahoo account.  
**_

**Contemplation**

**(February, 21 IV)**

Even when Eomer was not in residence there, Lothiriel preferred sitting in his study over using her own sitting room. Perhaps it was because she felt his presence though he was absent. The evening found her there now. Late meetings had drawn him away, so she sat alone knitting, curled on the couch.

It was sentimental of her, she knew, but she had a great fondness for this couch as it was the place where Eomer had first kissed her. True, she had been asleep at the time, and he had snuck the buss while she was unaware, but still she cherished the memory of that occasion.

She was lost in her reminiscing when the door opened and Eomer strode in, closing it securely behind him. She glanced up from her knit work, and watched as he made a beeline for the couch. Plunking down next to her, he promptly stretched out and plopped his head into her lap, giving a heavy sigh.

Smiling, she laid aside her work and looked down, asking, "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, my lord?" Her fingers automatically began stroking his hair back from his face.

His eyes closed, he informed her, "This _man_ is in desperate need of his _wife's_ company."

She grinned and replied, "How fortunate then that she is most amenable to such a caller!" She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, and his hand came up to caress her cheek tenderly, though his eyes remained closed.

She could feel him relaxing, and grinned mischievously. "Do not think I am going to carry you to bed if you fall asleep here!" she warned teasingly.

He chuckled and suggested alternatively, "What if I muster the strength to carry _you_ to bed?"

Her eyes shone with amusement. "I do not believe I would find that at all objectionable, though I do have my doubts it is going to happen _this_ night!"

His shoulders shrugged; she knew him too well, and he was far too comfortable to argue the point, so they lapsed once more into silence. For several long moments, they sat thus, simply enjoying one another, and then he ventured further conversation.

"Do you ever wonder.…" he murmured quietly.

"Wonder?"

"What our lives would be like if I was just Eomer and you were just Lothiriel, and we were not royalty, or rulers of Rohan?"

She paused only a moment before replying, "I _know_ what it would be like."

His eyes blinked drowsily open and he looked curiously up at her, waiting for her to continue.

"It would be wonderful. Just as it is now," she told him sincerely. "So long as we are together, it could never be anything else, no matter what may come."

A pleased expression slid over his face and he nodded slightly. "Yes, I think you must be right, my love."

"Perhaps you would be gone more with whatever occupation you chose, presumably a soldier, but I would welcome you home just as warmly. And I would tend our home and raise our children in much the same way as I do now, though likely without so much help as the queen enjoys. But mostly I would be grateful every day that we had found one another, and would spend all of our days together. _That_ is what it would be like. The winds would still blow cold in the winter, and the children would still prove a challenge, but our love would be ever constant. I could not contemplate otherwise."

His eyes slipped closed, satisfied. "Nor could I," he rejoined. "Nor could I, beloved."

THE END

4/6/07

FYI: Eomer, 50; Lothiriel, 42; Elfwine, 20; Theodwyn, 13; Theomund, 11; Morwen, 7

"buss" is another word for a kiss - another one of those obscure words that clutter my brain...

_**End note: **__** It is best that you read the Elfwine Chronicles in the order they were written.**__** The more of them that I wrote, the more likely I was to make reference to one of the previous ones and something that happened there. If you want to read them in order, go to the top of this page and click on my name (Deandra). That will take you to my profile page. Scroll down and you will find all the stories I have written. The Elfwine Chronicles are in order from bottom to top since ffn shows them in the order they were posted. A few were posted out of number order, but you can read them in posting order or number order since those few won't be affected in the story content.**_


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